Unusual Hats.

Just for fun: serious-looking people with animals on their heads. Brings a whole new meaning to wearing fur.

Any plans this weekend? I'll be working on a new story for the upcoming issue of Rue (very excited!), and, at some point, attempting to make these with a friend (again, very excited!). Wishing you all a wonderful, warm weekend whatever your plans! 

Images, clockwise from top left: via the ghost of me, unknown, unknown, Alen MacWeeney, Tomasz Wagner, Haciendo clack, Peter H. Fürst. All found via Hazel Terry's pinboard "A life with animals" - thank you, Hazel!

A Softer World.

In college, "A Softer World" was one of my favorite stops on the web. A collaboration between writer Joey Comeau and photographer Emily Horne, the site features comics that read like poetry - they're often very dark, but do some digging and you'll stumble across gems that are exceptionally sweet, heartbreakingly gorgeous, and, at times, ridiculously funny. Paging through its archives earlier this week, I was happy to revisit some of my favorite entries - and discover a few new ones, as well. Below, four stand-outs.

See more at "A Softer World," here, and on the site's corresponding Tumblr feed, here.

Neighborly.

This week on the Equals Record: how one night in a local barbershop - watching a boxing match, of all things - changed the way I think about my Brooklyn neighborhood, and made me love it even more than I already did.

An excerpt from the new post: "All my life, the cities I’ve lived in have felt like temporary homes. Growing up, my family moved back and forth between Los Angeles and Honolulu, and I knew that Santa Cruz, where I lived for four years in college, wasn’t a city I’d remain in after graduation. Now, though, for the first time, I’m beginning to get a sense of what it might feel like to be a part of a community. To settle in. To make a place my own. And I’m realizing I don’t just want to exist as part of my neighborhood—I want to know it. More importantly, I want to know the people I share it with—and not just the ones whose lives look like mine."

Read the rest on the Equals Record, here. You can find past entries from my weekly column, Looking Forward (all about the ups and downs of "growing up" in my twenties), here. Thanks so much for your support and kindness, as always.

Image: "Houses and Birds" by Judy Kaufmann.

Beauty & Terror.

Spotted these wise words the other day and fell in love.

I've joked a lot with friends lately about how so many of us seem to be in the midst of some sort of quarter-life crisis - whether it be career-related, relationship-related, or otherwise. Turns out, this growing-up-and-figuring-things-out business can be scary. What a great reminder that it can also be beautiful, eye-opening, full of wonder. Just keep going. 

Image via Asuyeta. 

My Dad Takes Pictures.

Dave Healey is a Los Angeles photographer who's shot the old-fashioned way - that is to say, using film - for over forty years. Now, thanks to his daughter, Megan (who I'm proud to call a friend), his work can be found in the blogosphere, on the aptly-titled Tumblr My Dad Takes Pictures. Below are a few of my favorites, which feature Megan and her twin sister, Danielle, when they were little. 

A bit from Megan, as written on the site: "My dad has been taking pictures since the sixties, but for the past twenty years, he's worked in a darkroom and many of his beautiful images are hidden in boxes without an audience. I came home for the holidays and started scanning." So very happy she did. 

Photographs by Dave Healey. See more at My Dad Takes Pictures, here.